Windows 10: Windows storage spaces with external 2 bay HDD enclosure

Hi there

I can't seem to decide what's the best way option connecting a 2 Bay HDD external enclosure to a laptop for maximum performance.

The HDD enclosure can connect via e-sata or a USB 3 connection -- I have to use the USB 3 connection as there's no e-sata external connection on the laptop. These enclosures only need 1 USB / e-sata connector as the hardware in the computer has the multi-port detection in it (been standard for ages these days).

The HDD enclosure has a built in switchable option - Run as RAID 0, Run as RAID 1, Run as JBOD (Just a bunch of Disks i.e it will show the whole thing as a single HDD) or as discrete disks -- i.e it will show 2 separate disks.

Now I want to use storage spaces so I'm tempted to use the "run as separate disks" option -- Windows will then see 2 HDD's which I can create into a storage space.

On these multi-bay relatively cheap HDD enclosures my impression is that the built in RAID controllers are far inferior to using Software -- on Linux that's certainly true - the mdadm kernel RAID works far superiorly to running these enclosures using built in RAID.

Any idea as to using these types of HDD's with Storage spaces vs the built in hardware RAID.

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Disk Activity / Polling with Windows 10 Storage Spaces Feature

Greetings from Canada,

Hoping someone can answer my query concerning Storage Spaces. I setting up an external enclosure with 2 * 4 TB retail WD HDD's.

I have been experimenting with the Storage Spaces feature and was able to successfully create a two way mirror of space using these two drives, similar to a RAID 1 configuration.

I have noticed though that there seems to been frequent disk activity which is indicated by the enclosures drive lights. This is a regular occurrence and the activity lights often alternate between the two installed drives.

I do not believe there is any program per se that is causing this drive activity.

My question is does Windows Storage Spaces poll / access these shared drives as part of its process / monitoring of the drives. Perhaps this is the cause of the apparent drive activity. It should be noted that when I use these two drives as separate entities
(ie like external HDD) the drive light activity does not occur.

Any feedback or information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Regards

S

 

Storage Spaces with External Drives

I am considering getting an external enclosure for multiple HDDs and then using Storage Spaces to create a simple pool so it will be usable as one large space. My question is: if I connect this enclosure to another computer, how will that work? Will the
other computer recognize the pool? Or will it show up as multiple drives? Not work at all? I don't currently have an easy way to test this right now and would appreciate anyone's experiences setting up a pool with external drives and then using them on another
PC. Thanks!